Here is a behind the scenes look at how I put together this year’s Christmas card picture. It was my wife’s idea. She loves everything Christmas, so she wanted to do a re-enactment of the toy soldiers from the Radio City Christmas Show. If you haven’t seen it, it’s when all the Rockettes (dressed up as toy soldiers) fall onto each other. It has been part of the show for years. With my oldest daughter being one of the drum majors this year, and our son in the drum line, we only had to worry about getting a uniform on our youngest daughter. Oh, that and getting shots of them during one of their performances. We were able to get them away for about 5 minutes during one of their performances. The lighting was a little harsher than I would have liked and the background much busier, but you have to work with what you’ve got. We did the initial setup #1 with all three of them. But I knew I needed another shot to get a “clean” uniform for our youngest daughter to wear, so I took her out (which she didn’t understand at the time… I should have explained it to her better). I shot #2 for the “clean” uniform, which also included our son’s straight arm to match up with our daughter’s arm. But sadly, it also includes our oldest daughter’s arms over the front of the uniform, so I had to fake that out in photoshop. What picture would be complete without the family dog – #3. Since he wasn’t at the game, we had to shoot him at home. I setup my flash in an umbrella to simulate the direction of the light so it would be similar to the kids. I also got some cool bubble shots while I had the lighting setup. Finally, I needed a decent background, so I did a search for Christmas trees on a stage and found #4. With some cloning and blurring, it worked for what I needed. Since this is just a personal project, I think it’s ok. And that’s it for this year. Now to think of something for next year… You can check out one of my favorites from a few years ago here. Tech Info: Nikon D800, Nikon 24-70mm, Nikon SB-910, Cheetah light Stand, 43″...

While I was shooting my dog for this year’s Christmas card, my daughter wanted to play with the bubbles with him. He loves it. He tries to eat them all. I had my off camera flash setup on a stand with an umbrella and I was shooting toward our living room window, which was very bright, but it was good because that back light helped to give the bubbles some defined edges. I included a quick diagram of the setup to help you visualize the setup. Tech Info: Nikon D800, Nikon 24-70mm, Nikon SB-910, Cheetah light Stand, 43″...